What drives usability of public sector online reporting?

On the basis of the extant literature, this article proposes that the usability of accounting information offered by websites is driven by three factors: relevance, understandability, and presentation format. By means of a pilot survey, document analysis and interviews, the authors found that the importance of visual appearance was acknowledged, but that it may bring up the suspicion of impression management. Furthermore, the two investigated municipalities performed a balancing act between information abundance and information shortage.